When Arnautoff’’s student visa was expiring, Stackpole arranged an introduction to Diego Rivera, and Victor, Lydia, and their two sons spent 1929-1931 in Mexico. There Arnatuoff assisted Rivera at ...
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When Arnautoff’’s student visa was expiring, Stackpole arranged an introduction to Diego Rivera, and Victor, Lydia, and their two sons spent 1929-1931 in Mexico. There Arnatuoff assisted Rivera at the Cortés Palace in Cuernavaca and the National Palace in Mexico City and encountered both the PCM (Mexican Communist Party) and Rivera’s idiosyncratic version of communism. In 1930, Rivera went to San Francisco to paint murals there, leaving Arnautoff in charge at the National Palace. Ione Robinson’s letters provide information both about life in Mexico City and about Arnautoff. In 1931, the family returned to the US as permanent residents eligible for citizenship.Less

“Under Rivera’s Guidance,” 1929–1931

Robert W. Cherny

Published in print: 2017-03-15

When Arnautoff’’s student visa was expiring, Stackpole arranged an introduction to Diego Rivera, and Victor, Lydia, and their two sons spent 1929-1931 in Mexico. There Arnatuoff assisted Rivera at the Cortés Palace in Cuernavaca and the National Palace in Mexico City and encountered both the PCM (Mexican Communist Party) and Rivera’s idiosyncratic version of communism. In 1930, Rivera went to San Francisco to paint murals there, leaving Arnautoff in charge at the National Palace. Ione Robinson’s letters provide information both about life in Mexico City and about Arnautoff. In 1931, the family returned to the US as permanent residents eligible for citizenship.

This chapter explores the explicitly Pan Americanist ballet H.P. (Horsepower), with a score by Chávez and sets and costumes by Diego Rivera. In depicting the technologically advanced North with ...
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This chapter explores the explicitly Pan Americanist ballet H.P. (Horsepower), with a score by Chávez and sets and costumes by Diego Rivera. In depicting the technologically advanced North with modernist machine music and the fertile South with salon-type, body-conscious Latin American dances, Chávez, at first blush, would seem to be enshrining north-south difference. Yet musical and visual elements of H.P. embrace sameness through a phenomenon the cultural historian Jeffrey Belnap calls “dialectical indigenism,” which proclaims the continued presence of indigenous culture in modern technology. Likewise the Chávez enthusiast Paul Rosenfeld masculinized the habitually feminized South in H.P. with his customary panegyrics. Ultimately, however, Chávez returned almost immediately to ur-classicism, resulting in the Sinfonía India, his best-known work. Considered “exotic-primitivistic” in the 1970s, the Sinfonía India inspired a series of sameness-embracing paeans from critics the stature of Colin McPhee and John Cage, all of whom found little to exoticize.Less

Carol A. Hess

Published in print: 2013-10-23

This chapter explores the explicitly Pan Americanist ballet H.P. (Horsepower), with a score by Chávez and sets and costumes by Diego Rivera. In depicting the technologically advanced North with modernist machine music and the fertile South with salon-type, body-conscious Latin American dances, Chávez, at first blush, would seem to be enshrining north-south difference. Yet musical and visual elements of H.P. embrace sameness through a phenomenon the cultural historian Jeffrey Belnap calls “dialectical indigenism,” which proclaims the continued presence of indigenous culture in modern technology. Likewise the Chávez enthusiast Paul Rosenfeld masculinized the habitually feminized South in H.P. with his customary panegyrics. Ultimately, however, Chávez returned almost immediately to ur-classicism, resulting in the Sinfonía India, his best-known work. Considered “exotic-primitivistic” in the 1970s, the Sinfonía India inspired a series of sameness-embracing paeans from critics the stature of Colin McPhee and John Cage, all of whom found little to exoticize.

After Hermes Pan completed work on Betty Grable’s Sweet Rosie O’Grady he was invited by Cole Porter to choreograph Mexican Hayride on Broadway but refused, preferring to continue his career on the ...
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After Hermes Pan completed work on Betty Grable’s Sweet Rosie O’Grady he was invited by Cole Porter to choreograph Mexican Hayride on Broadway but refused, preferring to continue his career on the West Coast. Following the production of Pin Up Girl, however, Pan grew dissatisfied with Hollywood and entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani with the view of becoming a monk. Realizing that monastic life was not to his taste, he returned to the West Coast only to be introduced to muralist Diego Rivera who invited Pan to Mexico and painted his portrait. Back at Fox Pan continues turning out musical films including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair before he is lent out to Paramount to choreograph Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and featuring “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” After the completion of That Lady in Ermine, Fox drops Pan’s option.Less

Red Robins, Bob Whites, and Bluebirds

John Franceschina

Published in print: 2012-06-12

After Hermes Pan completed work on Betty Grable’s Sweet Rosie O’Grady he was invited by Cole Porter to choreograph Mexican Hayride on Broadway but refused, preferring to continue his career on the West Coast. Following the production of Pin Up Girl, however, Pan grew dissatisfied with Hollywood and entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani with the view of becoming a monk. Realizing that monastic life was not to his taste, he returned to the West Coast only to be introduced to muralist Diego Rivera who invited Pan to Mexico and painted his portrait. Back at Fox Pan continues turning out musical films including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair before he is lent out to Paramount to choreograph Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and featuring “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” After the completion of That Lady in Ermine, Fox drops Pan’s option.

This chapter explores links between the representation of women and the primitive (or the indigenous) in the “Sandunga” episode of Sergei Eisenstein's film ¡Que Viva Mexico!. It explains that this ...
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This chapter explores links between the representation of women and the primitive (or the indigenous) in the “Sandunga” episode of Sergei Eisenstein's film ¡Que Viva Mexico!. It explains that this episode reflects the dual function of woman as the figure for the essential and natural, but at the same time a force that is subversive to the masculine symbolic economy. The chapter also traces particular images of women in “Sandunga” to their representations in other artists' work, such as Tina Modotti's photography and Diego Rivera's murals.Less

“Sandunga”

Published in print: 2009-04-15

This chapter explores links between the representation of women and the primitive (or the indigenous) in the “Sandunga” episode of Sergei Eisenstein's film ¡Que Viva Mexico!. It explains that this episode reflects the dual function of woman as the figure for the essential and natural, but at the same time a force that is subversive to the masculine symbolic economy. The chapter also traces particular images of women in “Sandunga” to their representations in other artists' work, such as Tina Modotti's photography and Diego Rivera's murals.

This chapter examines the forces encouraging the New Deal’s cultural turn. In addition to economic considerations, cultural theories also played a key role in the New Deal’s art projects. Efforts to ...
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This chapter examines the forces encouraging the New Deal’s cultural turn. In addition to economic considerations, cultural theories also played a key role in the New Deal’s art projects. Efforts to democratize and nationalize American art combined with attempts to foster a usable past and preserve culture, to address the supposed problems caused by too much leisure time, and to highlight the comparative international weakness of US investment in the arts. Key events, such as the destruction of Diego Rivera’s mural at Rockefeller Center (1933) and the formation of the Popular Front (1935), further encouraged an array of leaders–within the President’s administration, the established art world, and rank-and-file artists and intellectuals—to demand and create government support for artists. Many of those art advocates idealistically, but unrealistically, hoped that such public funding would come without political strings.Less

May the Artist Live?

Sharon Ann Musher

Published in print: 2015-05-04

This chapter examines the forces encouraging the New Deal’s cultural turn. In addition to economic considerations, cultural theories also played a key role in the New Deal’s art projects. Efforts to democratize and nationalize American art combined with attempts to foster a usable past and preserve culture, to address the supposed problems caused by too much leisure time, and to highlight the comparative international weakness of US investment in the arts. Key events, such as the destruction of Diego Rivera’s mural at Rockefeller Center (1933) and the formation of the Popular Front (1935), further encouraged an array of leaders–within the President’s administration, the established art world, and rank-and-file artists and intellectuals—to demand and create government support for artists. Many of those art advocates idealistically, but unrealistically, hoped that such public funding would come without political strings.

Victor Arnautoff, an artist, was born in 1896 in the Russian empire. After serving as a cavalry officer in WWI and then in the White Siberian army during the Russian Civil War, he became part of the ...
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Victor Arnautoff, an artist, was born in 1896 in the Russian empire. After serving as a cavalry officer in WWI and then in the White Siberian army during the Russian Civil War, he became part of the Russian diaspora, working for a Chinese warlord, studying art in San Francisco, and working with Diego Rivera in Mexico. Returning to San Francisco, his art was acclaimed during the 1930s, especially his public murals, most financed by New-Deal art programs. He joined Stanford University’s art faculty. He and his wife became citizens and secretly joined the Communist party (CP). They threw themselves into work for Russian war relief during WWII and became active in Communist front groups. After WWII, the rise of abstract expressionism marginalized Arnautoff’s social realism, and he found a new cultural home in the California Labor School. Arnautoff’s activities in Communist front groups brought FBI surveillance. He was called before a HUAC sub-committee, and the Stanford administration tried unsuccessfully to terminate him in a case involving standards of academic freedom. After retiring from Stanford and the death of his wife, Arnautoff emigrated to the Soviet Union. There he created several large public murals before his death in 1979.Less

Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of Art

Robert W. Cherny

Published in print: 2017-03-15

Victor Arnautoff, an artist, was born in 1896 in the Russian empire. After serving as a cavalry officer in WWI and then in the White Siberian army during the Russian Civil War, he became part of the Russian diaspora, working for a Chinese warlord, studying art in San Francisco, and working with Diego Rivera in Mexico. Returning to San Francisco, his art was acclaimed during the 1930s, especially his public murals, most financed by New-Deal art programs. He joined Stanford University’s art faculty. He and his wife became citizens and secretly joined the Communist party (CP). They threw themselves into work for Russian war relief during WWII and became active in Communist front groups. After WWII, the rise of abstract expressionism marginalized Arnautoff’s social realism, and he found a new cultural home in the California Labor School. Arnautoff’s activities in Communist front groups brought FBI surveillance. He was called before a HUAC sub-committee, and the Stanford administration tried unsuccessfully to terminate him in a case involving standards of academic freedom. After retiring from Stanford and the death of his wife, Arnautoff emigrated to the Soviet Union. There he created several large public murals before his death in 1979.

Stephanie J. Smith brings Mexican politics and art together, chronicling the turbulent relations between radical artists and the postrevolutionary Mexican state. The revolution opened space for new ...
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Stephanie J. Smith brings Mexican politics and art together, chronicling the turbulent relations between radical artists and the postrevolutionary Mexican state. The revolution opened space for new political ideas, but by the late 1920s many government officials argued that consolidating the nation required coercive measures toward dissenters. While artists and intellectuals, some of them professed Communists, sought free expression in matters both artistic and political, Smith reveals how they simultaneously learned the fine art of negotiation with the increasingly authoritarian government in order to secure clout and financial patronage. But the government, Smith shows, also had reason to accommodate artists, and a surprising and volatile interdependence grew between the artists and the politicians.
Involving well-known artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as some less well known, including Tina Modotti, Leopoldo Méndez, and Aurora Reyes, politicians began to appropriate the artists’ nationalistic visual images as weapons in a national propaganda war. High-stakes negotiating and co-opting took place between the two camps as they sparred over the production of generally accepted notions and representations of the revolution’s legacy—and what it meant to be authentically Mexican.Less

The Power and Politics of Art in Postrevolutionary Mexico

Stephanie J. Smith

Published in print: 2018-01-08

Stephanie J. Smith brings Mexican politics and art together, chronicling the turbulent relations between radical artists and the postrevolutionary Mexican state. The revolution opened space for new political ideas, but by the late 1920s many government officials argued that consolidating the nation required coercive measures toward dissenters. While artists and intellectuals, some of them professed Communists, sought free expression in matters both artistic and political, Smith reveals how they simultaneously learned the fine art of negotiation with the increasingly authoritarian government in order to secure clout and financial patronage. But the government, Smith shows, also had reason to accommodate artists, and a surprising and volatile interdependence grew between the artists and the politicians.
Involving well-known artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as some less well known, including Tina Modotti, Leopoldo Méndez, and Aurora Reyes, politicians began to appropriate the artists’ nationalistic visual images as weapons in a national propaganda war. High-stakes negotiating and co-opting took place between the two camps as they sparred over the production of generally accepted notions and representations of the revolution’s legacy—and what it meant to be authentically Mexican.

Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine

America’s Pacific coast promised self-fulfillment not only through moral and spiritual regeneration but exuberant physical health as well. This chapter considers how the Southland’s sunny climate, ...
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America’s Pacific coast promised self-fulfillment not only through moral and spiritual regeneration but exuberant physical health as well. This chapter considers how the Southland’s sunny climate, first promoted by the region’s boosters, actually encouraged settlers to lead their lives differently. The body became the focus of an often literal self-fashioning, through fitness masters like Jack LaLanne or cosmetics pioneer Max Factor. Self-consciously emulating ancient Greeks and Romans, Southern Californians initiated trends that would change the way Americans eat, dress, and spend their leisure time. Californians even fashioned their bodies according to classical ideals. Visual artists—Diego Rivera, David Hockney, Cronk, David Ligare, Herb Ritts, Robert Graham—were sensitive to this new conception of beauty, and represented it in various media throughout the twentieth century.Less

Aphrodite, Atlas, and the California Body

Peter J. Hollida

Published in print: 2016-06-01

America’s Pacific coast promised self-fulfillment not only through moral and spiritual regeneration but exuberant physical health as well. This chapter considers how the Southland’s sunny climate, first promoted by the region’s boosters, actually encouraged settlers to lead their lives differently. The body became the focus of an often literal self-fashioning, through fitness masters like Jack LaLanne or cosmetics pioneer Max Factor. Self-consciously emulating ancient Greeks and Romans, Southern Californians initiated trends that would change the way Americans eat, dress, and spend their leisure time. Californians even fashioned their bodies according to classical ideals. Visual artists—Diego Rivera, David Hockney, Cronk, David Ligare, Herb Ritts, Robert Graham—were sensitive to this new conception of beauty, and represented it in various media throughout the twentieth century.

This short chapter argues that a ‘positive’ prenatal diagnosis - that is, the diagnosis of a serious anomaly of the fetus - is always the announcement of a forthcoming loss: loss of a pregnancy or ...
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This short chapter argues that a ‘positive’ prenatal diagnosis - that is, the diagnosis of a serious anomaly of the fetus - is always the announcement of a forthcoming loss: loss of a pregnancy or loss of the hope of birth of a healthy child. Academic research has a limited capacity for dealing with emotionally charged issues. Art provides very different means to reflect on such issues. The coda juxtaposes two art works which deal with pregnancy loss, reproductive ambivalence and the liminal status of the fetus: a 2010 collection of short stories Obsoletki by a Polish poet, Justyna Bragielska, and the 1932 painting, 'Henry Ford Hospital', by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Very dissimilar in intention and execution, both art works combine raw sentiment, empathy and irony, and both firmly place failed pregnancies within the fragile, glorious, messy, tragic, banal, ambivalent, risky, and hopeful stream of life.Less

Minerva’s Owl and Apollo’s Lyre

Ilana Löwy

Published in print: 2018-04-16

This short chapter argues that a ‘positive’ prenatal diagnosis - that is, the diagnosis of a serious anomaly of the fetus - is always the announcement of a forthcoming loss: loss of a pregnancy or loss of the hope of birth of a healthy child. Academic research has a limited capacity for dealing with emotionally charged issues. Art provides very different means to reflect on such issues. The coda juxtaposes two art works which deal with pregnancy loss, reproductive ambivalence and the liminal status of the fetus: a 2010 collection of short stories Obsoletki by a Polish poet, Justyna Bragielska, and the 1932 painting, 'Henry Ford Hospital', by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Very dissimilar in intention and execution, both art works combine raw sentiment, empathy and irony, and both firmly place failed pregnancies within the fragile, glorious, messy, tragic, banal, ambivalent, risky, and hopeful stream of life.

Touring takes company to Miami and Puerto Rico. Government withholds funding, another Hurok offer rejected. Alberto is choreographing new works, Fernando authors proposal for Latin American ballet ...
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Touring takes company to Miami and Puerto Rico. Government withholds funding, another Hurok offer rejected. Alberto is choreographing new works, Fernando authors proposal for Latin American ballet company to 1953 Continental Culture Congress in Chile which is presented by Nicolás Guillén. U.S. embassy withdraws Fernando’s work visa.Less

A Revolutionary Proposal

Toba Singer

Published in print: 2013-03-05

Touring takes company to Miami and Puerto Rico. Government withholds funding, another Hurok offer rejected. Alberto is choreographing new works, Fernando authors proposal for Latin American ballet company to 1953 Continental Culture Congress in Chile which is presented by Nicolás Guillén. U.S. embassy withdraws Fernando’s work visa.